CWSSL launch new coaching partnership with Coever with youngest girls set to benefit the most

The Cork Women’s and Schoolgirls Soccer League (CWSSL) has unveiled an ambitious new partnership with Coerver Coaching, setting in motion a five-year plan aimed at increasing opportunities and lifting the standard of girls’ football across Cork.

The initiative will see the league work hand-in-hand with the globally recognised coaching organisation to deliver weekly girls-only academies, 3v3 tournaments and talent-identification events — all designed to give players more contact time and professional-level training.

Coerver’s involvement will be spearheaded by Tim Mawe and Denis Behan, alongside Cork City WU17 manager Derek Coughlan, who will oversee the on-ground delivery of sessions.

For CWSSL chairperson Brian Murphy, the collaboration marks a major turning point.

“It's a game changer, it's massive for us,” Murphy said to The Echo. “We have grown so much over the years that we were concentrating a lot on the older teams and the U12s up and getting the leagues up and running. There's so many new teams in, it was just a huge amount of work.

I suppose the academy players were kind of forgotten a little bit, so it's trying to get them going, getting them more game time. So they'll all be with their clubs’ academies, which we want to continue, and this is completely separate to that.

“We want them to have extra time with playing football and this is what Coerver is aimed towards, that they'll have extra sessions during the week away from their academy.” The partnership is designed to complement club academies rather than compete with them. The aim, Murphy said, is simple — more football for every girl, at every level.

“So if they have their academy and Coerver, they're getting a lot more game time and if you have younger players at that age, they're only going to improve.

“And it's for every calibre of player, from if you're only just starting or you've never kicked a ball, to the better players that are there that are coming all the time, it's for everyone.” For the CWSSL, handing the reins of coaching and organisation to Coerver represents a shift from volunteer-based sessions to a professionally managed structure.

“And Coerver have the experience and they'll be able to run it for us, so it's a great partnership with the league to have that we know is professionally run,” Murphy explained. “And having the likes of Derek [Coughlan] as well in charge is just a huge game changer for us, as opposed to if we get people in, it's going to be volunteers.

“And then if two of them can't make it because of a removal or something, we're kind of running around, do we cancel it or do we get someone from the committee to run down and try and take over?

OPPORTUNITIES

“It's a lot to be asking all the time, so having that taken away from us, and knowing it's run properly would be massive for us.” Murphy said he hopes the new structure will lead to more opportunities for players to play, learn and enjoy themselves.

“And again, we'd be hoping to have, you can see the pitches that they have here [at Casement Park], to have once or twice a month have competitions or just invite all the players in for the day, for a couple of hours, two hours or whatever, and have 200 players over the space of two hours playing constantly.

“And you can see when they're coming out of this, they're running constantly, so I think the parents are going to be delighted because they're going to be panned out when they come out of it!” he laughed. “But even having the two pitches there and looking at them, like every girl is smiling and laughing, they're all enjoying it.” It is, he added, about building something lasting.

So for our underage, it's just something we've always tried to work on, what can we do more to improve and where can we learn from?

“And I suppose that was one of the areas where we needed to work a little bit more on and hopefully this partnership will prove very successful,” he remarked. “It's for the long term we're looking at as well too.” Murphy believes the benefits will ripple right through the league’s clubs.

“The players, they're going to improve. And at the end of the day, whether they're playing for the club or playing for an interleague team, they're going to be better players at the end of it.

“And yeah, we'll hopefully bring a lot more girls into it as well. So it's for the CWSSL Academy girls, but it's open to everyone. Any girl that wants to come down can come in and join.

“So hopefully clubs will gain from it as well and get more new players in as well too. So it's a game changer for us really.” The partnership represents one of the most significant youth-development steps in the CWSSL’s history – and a major boost for women’s football in Cork.